Robert Toomey's aircraft, a Canadian built Lancaster Mk. X bomber with serial KB751and code NA-Q  painted on the fuselage left RAF Middleton St. George airfield at 8:52 PM on Wednesday August 16th, 1944. The mission that evening was to bomb the port and industrial areas of Stettin, Germany (now Szczecin, Poland). This was Toomey’s fifth sortie and was part of an operation involving 461 aircraft from RAF Bomber Command targeting Kiel and Stettin. (See Robert Toomey's five missions here in the Addendum. )

Here is a summary of the information given by Robert Toomey and by Danish citizens who witnessed the crash and events leading to his capture. 

Sources:

1.  Questionnaire for Returned Aircrew - Loss of bomber aircraft, completed by Robert Toomey on May 18, 1945

2.  Søren C. Flensted, Airwar over Denmark website

3. "Events on Sejerø during the occupation" www.airmen.dk website - R. E. Toomey.

4.  RAF Missing Air Crew Report (MACR) from www.airmen.dk website. 

[Below, from Robert Toomey's "Questionnaire for Returned Aircrew", dated May 18, 1945. ]

Left base on 16.8.44, attack approximately 2:20 AM 17.8.44. After leaving base everything went very well and we dropped our bombs and headed back to base.  About 40 minutes after we left the target, the bomb aimer who was throwing out windows [bundles of strips of aluminum foil used to jam enemy radar] said over the intercom “skipper there is a vertical light off to port”.  He no sooner had the words out of his mouth when a terrific crashing noise took place, nearly deafening me. The plane started burning, from starboard to port. I was hit on the back of the head and the skipper’s [pilot William Fairgrieve's] face was a mess of blood.  

I did all I could to feather [change the angle of the propeller blades to reduce drag and prevent windmilling] and use the graviner [a fire extinguisher built into each engine], and after a brief check of my gauges, found things hopeless, and the plane burning fiercely. Nothing was said on the intercom, it was u/s [unserviceable]. 

The bomb aimer [Harry Slater] was ready to bale out and I gave him the signal. I shouted over the intercom to bale out, last attempt, and switched to call for the w/op [wireless operator Sgt. Robert Boyce]. I left the a/c [aircraft] and blacked out, woke up in the water, no harness or chute and Mae West holding me up. I swam to a Danish island.

[End of excerpt from R.C.A.F. questionnaire]

Another account given by Toomey to Jørgen Helme appears on Airwar over Denmark website.

At 2:16 AM on August 17th, 1944  Sgt. Robert E. Toomey’s aircraft crashed into the sea about 2 nautical miles southwest of the harbour of the Danish island Sejerø. Most residents of the island were awake that night because of the noise of the aircraft and machine guns, and witnesses reported that the plane exploded in mid-air. The coordinates of the crash site are given in decimal degrees as position 55.8499, 11.1072. (Approximately Latitude 55°50'59.56"N,  Longitude 11°6'25.84"E.) 

Robert Toomey woke up in the water without his parachute, being held up by his life jacket. After several hours in the water, in spite of the considerable distance to land with heavy seas and a strong current that night, he managed to swim in the direction of the lighthouse on Sejerø and came ashore at Lydebjerg, about here, about 6.82 kilometres from the crash site.  Around 6:00 AM, wet and exhausted, he knocked on the door of a home owned by Aksel and Karen Jensen located about 1,000 feet east of where he came ashore. He was “fully equipped with Mae West, whistle, torch and more”, Mrs. Jensen reported. 

They put him to bed, and gave him food and warm drinks. Toomey took a map from his pocket and pointed at Ottawa, Ontario and then at himself. He then took a map of Europe, and they realized he wanted to know where he was. When they pointed to Denmark on the map he became a little nervous and mentioned Sweden.

Parish executive officer Karl Jørgensen was called and he took Toomey to his home in Sejerby. There, he was put to bed and was examined later by Doctor Bjarnov. The doctor suspected that Toomey might have broken a rib and recommended he stay in bed until the next day when he could be transferred to hospital. 

However, since children had seen Toomey, it was decided that they should notify the local German garrison. 

The leader of the garrison would not allow Sgt. Toomey to be taken to hospital and ordered him to get out of bed and to follow him to the German barracks. 

On August 30, 1944 tail gunner F/O Joseph Ralph (Gordon) Srigley was found here  (position 57.098834, 12.241037) on Veddinge Strand beach on the Danish island of Sjælland, where he is buried in Faarevejle Cemetery, Grave E. 866.

On September 2, 1944 the body of F/O Harry Slater, the bomb aimer, was found washed ashore on the west coast of Sweden near Varberg,  about here (position 57.099062, 12.241077), more than 150 kilometres from the crash site. He was laid to rest in Varberg Church’s New Cemetery with full military honours in Grave C. 33.